Drones

Drone equipped with camera

Who Can Use Drones This Week?

Movies and deliveries are moving on up, while fines and bans go into effect in parks

The Project Wing test craft begins lowering its payload during a test flight in Australia.

Google’s Delivery Drones Will Airlift Supplies Practically Anywhere

Project Wing, a development platform, completes test deliveries over Australia

Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring

This Is Why the Park Service Banned Drones—One Just Crashed Into a Famous Hot Spring

This is why we can't have nice things

Lt. Col. Geoffrey Barnes, Detachment 1 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Attack Squadron commander, performs a pre-flight inspection of an MQ-1B Predator unmanned drone aircraft in September 3, 2008.

There Have Been 418 Major Drone Crashes Since 2001, Many of Them in the United States

Even the military is having drone problems

Grand Canyon National Park

Drones Are Now Banned From All National Parks

Drones are now prohibited in all national parks, not just Yosemite

Why Are People So Comfortable With Small Drones?

The FAA will soon allow commercial drones to fly in U.S. airspace, but researchers have found that they aren’t seen as much of a nuisance at all

Christopher Vo, a roboticist at George Mason University and drone technology educator, teaches everyday users how to build and fly drones like this one.

What Would You Do With A Drone?

As the potential drone applications grow, so does the build-your-own drone movement

Atlas V Launches the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.

Take a Peek Into the Future's Present With Our Live Coverage of Smithsonian's Two-Day Festival

The magazine's 2nd annual conference brings together experts, authors and visionaries in the fields of science, science fiction and technology.

Small, Quiet Drones Let Conservationists Peek Inside Bird’s Nests

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is using remote-controlled drones to monitor nests of endangered species

Yosemite National Park Bans Drones

The Park says that the use of drones can disturb other visitors and wildlife

Drone-Assisted Hunting Banned in Alaska

“Under hunting regulations, unless it specifically says that it’s illegal, you’re allowed to do it."

The FAA Ordered This Beer Drone Delivery Service to Cease And Desist

Commercial use of drones is banned—for now

A Falcon UAV unpiloted aircraft is bungee launched in a midday demonstration flight.

The One Use of Drones Everyone Can Agree on, Except for Poachers

Conservationists are looking to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for help in keeping an eye on endangered species

These Drones Flock (Almost) Like Birds

After long scientific endeavor, these drones flocked together

Home deliveries are just one potential use of personal drones.

When Drones Get Personal

So we've seen how a drone can deliver a package, but can one become a buddy with a camera?

Author Mark Bowden writes in our 101 Objects Special Issue: Though unmanned, remote-controlled drones had been used in times of war since World War II, they were revolutionized in 1995. The Gnat, developed by the San Diego defense contractor General Atomics, carried something new: video cameras. Soldiers had long coveted the ability to see over the next hill. Manned aircraft delivered that, from gas-filled balloons in the Civil War and from airplanes in the 20th century, but only until the pilot or his fuel was exhausted. Satellites provide an amazing panorama but they are expensive, few in number and not always overhead when needed. The Gnat gave commanders a 60-mile panorama from a platform that could stay airborne more or less permanently, with vehicles flown in 12-hour shifts. Later renamed the Predator, it quickly became the U.S. military's preferred surveillance tool. Read more of Bowden's essay.

How the Predator Drone Changed the Character of War

Mark Bowden investigates how the unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft altered the battlefield forever

Meet the Qube drone, specially designed for police departments.

Drawing the Line on Drones

A lot of police departments will soon have their own flying robots. How far should they be allowed to go in shooting video from the sky?

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